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Thursday, 12 July 2012

If you are in Tokyo this week this exhibition on flower and tea gatherings is a must. I've only visited the website of this fabulous museum, but will definitely treat myself to a visit on my next trip to Japan.

"During the Muromachi period, tea ceremony and flower arrangement displays were two popular forms of socializing. This exhibition features the utensils used in such Muromachi period social events.

Muromachi period tea and flower aficionados collected superb examples of these different utensils, and used tea and flower events as opportunities to display and enjoy their collections. Many of the objects used in these social gatherings first came to Japan in the 13th and 14th centuries for use in Buddhist temples for both tea drinking and flower arrangements to adorn ritual spaces. These practices led to the import of a wide variety of tea and flower utensils into Japan from China, the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia. Later these imported tea and flower utensils were dispersed to members of the aristocracy and the military ruling class who each collected them for use in tea, flower and linked-verse gatherings. Many of the finest examples have been treasured over the centuries and remain with us today."

Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers. More than being decorative, ikebana is thought of as a path of life or a kind of meditation.
I'm studying Ikebana with the Sogetsu school, and currently I hold a teachers certificate of Sankyu Shihan (teacher, third grade). My flower name is Senju 泉樹.
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"Ikebana is the art of space - the space between branches, the space between flowers and leaves and the space between masses. In other words, the space between the branches and flowers comes alive. This space is a plentiful void projecting tension and power."

Sofu Teshigahara

"I regard myself as a creator of shape who uses mainly flowers as his metier, rather than purely as an arranger of flowers."

Sofu Teshigahara

“Ikebana is a form of sculpture that exists only within a limited time span, transforms from moment to moment, then perishes.”